Farm News

AUGUST 2010

Our sunflowers make the newspapers

Our 160 acre crop of sunflowers is creating a buzz in the media world. The Daily Mail and Daily Express have recently paid us a visit to see and photograph our fields of sunflowers. To view the stories click on the links below:

Daily Mail: A sea of sunflowers as far as the eye can see: Bumper crop for Britain's

largest grower

Daily Express: Sunflower are the star attraction

BBC Countryfile visit Vine House Farm

On Tuesday 3 August we had BBC Countryfile come and film on the farm. We will make up part of the Countryfile television programme on Sunday 15th August 2010 broadcast on BBC 1 at 6.30pm. Make sure you tune in to see what they got up to.

BBC Countryfile is a show about the people, places and stories making the news in the British countryside. It was great to have Adam Henson, the presenter, and the rest of the BBC film crew on the farm. It will be a great opportunity for you to see what the farm looks like in the summer. Nicholas and Lucy Watts gave Adam and team a tour of the farm and explained the various conservation measures that have been put in place on the farm and about our bird food business.

Adam, who has his own very successful rare breeds farm in the Cotswolds really enjoyed his day filming on our farm. He commented:

"we have had a very enjoyable day here at Vine House Farm, learning about the farm and bird food business, Nicholas' knowledge and passion for wildlife is inspirational. "

Adam and the team also visited the pea vining fields north of Boston and then the RSPB's Frampton Marsh both of which will also feature in this week's Countryfile episode.

Don't forget to tune into BBC 1 on Sunday at 6.30pm to see Adam and the Vine House Farm team in action!

JUNE 2010

Well hasn't the weather been fantastic in the last few weeks. It has been well documented that many areas of the country are struggling for water. Here at Vine House Farm for the first 6 months of 2010 we have only had 187mm of rain, which indeed is dry but not as dry as 2005 or 2009 in recent years.

The lack of water this spring meant that we had irrigate some of our sunflowers to help them germinate. They are now enjoying the warm weather and growing well.

We are currently flat out irrigating our potatoes. At this time of year we require a team of two or three men to irrigate seven days a week to keep our 200 acres of potatoes at optimum moisture. Few potato crops are grown now without irrigation, as supermarkets become ever more choosy about the quality of potatoes on their shelves. By keeping them well watered this helps stop cracking and scab forming and increases their yield. Potatoes are an expensive crop to grow and not making the grade is an expensive mistake to make.

We have especially enjoyed the dry weather with our organic crops. The dry weather has meant that weeds have been easy to kill. Our organic courgettes are now ready for cropping. We will harvest them daily now until the end of September. They are destined for the shelves of Tesco and M&S.

In the next few weeks the Oil seed rape and barley will be ready for harvesting.

APRIL 2010

Swallows have arrived

Having had a cold winter, so far it is a late spring. Hawthorn bushes are 3 weeks late coming into leaf and daffodils are also 3 weeks behind their usual flowering dates so it is rather surprising to see Swallows arriving early. I have kept a record of when I have seen my first Swallow since 1960 and the earliest I have seen them here in Deeping Fen is the 5th April, that was in 1993. When I saw six on the 7th April this year it was the second earliest date I have seen them.

This winter was the coldest winter for 30 years in this area, the mean temperature from 15th December until the end of February was 2°C. The mean temperature in 1979 for the same 75 days was +2.5°C. The previous cold winter before 1979 was in 1963 and for the same period the mean temperature was -2.7°C, so considerably colder.   

Wind Turbines can be good for local communities

Every year the Deeping St Nicholas wind farm gives £10,000 to the village which should be spent on a community, environmental or energy saving project. This has funded projects at the church, the chapel, the village hall and the parish newsletter.

Last year I put in a bid to repair one of the last original cattle sheds in the area. It is a shed where Barn Owls, Kestrels,Stock Doves and Tree Sparrows nest and if this barn was not there those species would not be able to nest in that area. It would only have been a matter of a few years before this shed would have started to fall in. It was not being maintained because it is no use in today’s modern world. It belonged to the horse and cart era. It is too small to be of any use.

I contacted the land owner and said if I was able to get a 50% grant for the shed would he be prepared to repair the shed. He said he would and so he obtained three quotes and I submitted the quotes to the wind turbine committee. The scheme was agreed and so the shed was repaired.

South Lincolnshire is a very important area for Barn Owls and their main nesting habitat is disused barns and sheds but many of them are falling intodisrepair. Boxes can be put on top of poles which are not very permanent and they only cater for one species at a time. Quite regularly there have been four species ofbirds nesting in this at a time.

Since this barn has been repaired I have arranged for a second building to be repaired one which Barn Owls, Tree Sparrows and Stock Doves nest in.

The picture shows a hole in the pantile roof of the shed that has now been repaired and just to the left of it in the distance is the barn with the slate roof that is going to be repaired.

26th March 2010

Spring seems to have arrived at last with milder weather finally here. I have kept my own weather records here at Vine House Farm for over 40 years. My records show that although it has indeed been a cold winter, 1963 and 1979 were considerably colder. Our cold winter has meant that many of our over wintering crops are behind compared to recent years. The local daffodil farmers (Spalding is one of the largest daffodil growing areas in the country) have only started cropping flowers in the last 2 weeks where as they would normally have started cropping at the end of January.

In the depths of January and February our farm staff spend most of their time maintaining machinery, loading out potatoes, wheat and sugar beet. This January they were also busy helping in our bird food packing shed bagging bird seed because we were so overwhelmed with orders.

We are now busy in the fields. Two weeks ago we applied fertilizer on our autumn sown crops. We have also drilled some spring wheat on the fields that were late harvested sugar beet. In previous years we have grown spring barley for the malting market, but prices for malting barley have dropped considerably this year due to reduced consumption of beer and whisky. This week we have also started drilling our sugar beet. Sugar beet can be a delicate crop when young - cold soils and late frosts can cause bolting. This can seriously affect yields so timing is crucial. The soil is too wet for planting potatoes at the moment but we would hope to get started soon after Easter if the weather stays dry.

26th January 2010

There has been no farm work during the past 5 weeks, partly because of annual holidays and the snowy weather and mainly because every one on the farm has been helping mix, pack and dispatch bird seed. All mail orders were able to be dispatched as usual on the same day it was ordered thanks to a flexible team of staff and extra people that we were able to call upon.

As a result of the cold weather many people are now laughing at global warming. Most of us can remember 1962/3 when there was a frost every night from 22nd December to 7th March. The next cold winter was 1979 when we had 43 frosts in January and February. Here we are with a gap of 30 years the next cold winter brings us so far with frosts on 25 nights. So even our cold winters are getting less cold. One thing that was unusual with all the snow we had was that there was no wind. I didn't hear of any reports of snow drifts. Any wind could have made huge snow drifts in various parts of the country.  We have had no problem of getting produce away from the farm or bringing supplies into the farm.

Vegetable prices into the shops have been remarkably stable. In the past vegetable prices would have soared with the weather conditions that we had but the supermarkets now have an iron grip on their suppliers and many farmers would be struggling to supply in the cold weather and losing money at the same time.